Here’s a humble attempt at a timeline of Kingston’s passenger ferry history.  Please let me know where I may have not gotten it right (434-0583 or  elliottmoore@comcast.net).

We’ll cover the WSF boats that have served Kingston in a later column.

— 1880s: With no place to dock here, passengers were routinely rowed ashore from steamboats plying the Sound. The steam launch “May B” shuttled families between Kingston and Ballard while the Puget Sound Freight Line made freight deliveries to a barge anchored in the cove where wagons made the pick-ups at low tide.

— 1899: Regular ferry service begins from Seattle to Kingston and eight Hood Canal ports with the steamer “Dode” which goes out one day and returns the next.

— 1900: Robert Forsyth and John Andresen build a freight and passenger pier at Kingston.

— 1910: R.M. Newell builds the South Kingston pier.

— 1912: The “State of Washington,” a sternwheeler, runs between Seattle, Kingston, Port Gamble and Hood Canal ports.

— 1913: The Kingston Transportation Company is formed to run the steamer “Kingston” between Kingston and Ballard.

— 1919: The Port of Kingston is established to maintain a dock “for the purpose of receiving freight and passengers and providing a landing place for boats and vessels of all kinds.”  The $5,000 cost is financed with bonds.

— 1923: Car ferry service comes to Kingston with the newly built 12-car “City of Edmonds.” The next year the “City of Kingston” joined the route, being built from the salvaged hull of the “Rubaiyat,” which had capsized in Tacoma.

— 1925: The “Elk” adds car ferry service between Kingston and Ballard.

— 1927: Puget Sound Navigation Company puts the 36-car “Quillayute” and “Mount Vernon” into Kingston-Edmonds-Port Ludlow-Seattle service.  “Quillayute” ran aground in Appletree Cove, giving Kingstonians a unique opportunity to walk out at low tide and view her below the waterline. The ferry was eventually sold to Black Ball Ferries Canada Ltd. for the start-up of its service from Horseshoe Bay to Gibsons. In 1961, B.C. Ferries purchased Black Ball Ferries Canada Ltd.

— 1929: The various, independent “Mosquito Fleet” ferries are consolidated into companies, the Puget Sound Navigation Company and the Kitsap County Transportation Company.

— 1930: Kingston builds a new car ferry dock with electric lights.

— 1935: A strike leaves Capt. Charles Peabody’s Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line) as the sole Puget Sound ferry company.

— 1938: The Port of Kingston forms a district to run our ferries during a six month strike.  — 1951: The state’s Toll Bridge Authority takes over Black Ball’s ferries.  Port land is leased for the Kingston terminal and the 80-car ferries “Nisqually” and “Klickitat” provide service.  These “steel-electric ferries” ended their careers in Port Townsend, where they were famously pulled from service because of severe hull corrosion two days before Thanksgiving 2007.

— 1952: A new Kingston terminal and boat haven are built, with the dredging material being used for the breakwater/ferry causeway.

— 1966: The Army Corps of Engineers builds the current rock breakwater and marina basin, with the dredging spoils being used for the present vehicle holding area.

— 1986: An auxiliary ferry slip is added.

— 1990: Puget Sound Express of Port Townsend starts up a Kingston-Seattle run with the 45-passenger boat “Red Head.” WSF unions file a suit against the service.

— 1991: We lose our cozy dockside trailer waiting room, and in return, semi- protected, overhead passenger loading ramps. No more walking on and off from the car deck. WSF starts planning passenger only ferry (POF) service for Kingston, Bremerton and Southworth.

— 1999: The design and permits are completed for a Kingston POF terminal.

— 1999: Lawsuits are filed for shoreline damage stopping Bremerton’s POF.  In Kingston a POF demonstration run to Seattle is made.

— 2002-03: The Legislature ends WSF’s POF plans and transfers the routes to local governments.

— 2005: A consortium of Clipper Navigation, Argosy Cruises, Nichols Brothers, and Four Seasons Marine runs “Aqua Express” from Kingston to Seattle. This is shut down after 10 months because of high fuel costs, low ridership, and obstacles to getting a Southworth route.

— 2007: The second of two countywide Kitsap ferry district ballot measures fails but North Kitsap supports it: Kingston, 67 percent; Bainbridge, 57 percent; Suquamish, 53 percent; Indianola, 62 percent; and Hansville, 55 percent.

— 2007: The State transfers money from the sale of the ferries “Chinook” and “Snohomish” for local passenger ferry start-ups.

— 2010-12: Port of Kingston buys two boats with a $3.5 million federal grant. The “Spirit of Kingston” is smaller than the Aqua Express, using less fuel and a smaller crew. A $150,000 state grant and about $900,000 of Port funds are used to operate the SoundRunner to “develop the passenger service such that at a future time it can be merged with another ferry provider including but not limited to … a future ferry district established by voters in Kitsap County.”

— Walt Elliott is a member of the Kingston Port Commission and the Kingston Ferry Advisory Committee. Contact him at elliottmoore@comcast.net.